Alliance: Shipping world in piracy crisis

LONDON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A shipping association alliance called on the United Nations Thursday to increase the number of anti-pirate ships patrolling the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.

BIMCO, the world's largest private shipping organization, along with Intercargo, the International Chamber of Shipping/International Shipping Federation and Intertanko, called on the United Nations and its International Maritime Organization to provide "real and immediate action against brazen acts of piracy, kidnapping and armed robbery" in the strategic waterway

Twelve ships -- including a Hong Kong chemical tanker with 22 crew members -- have been hijacked by armed pirates in the strategic waterway since July 20.

The Hong Kong ship was sailing in a maritime security corridor patrolled by an international coalition of warships and aircraft when it was attacked on Tuesday.

The alliance said the increasingly brazen piracy was "in danger of spiraling completely and irretrievably out of control."

It said intercepting the pirates and bringing them to justice was the only way of reestablishing safety and security to the strategic waterway.

The gulf is vital for shipping Persian Gulf oil, with about 11 percent of the world's seaborne petroleum passing through the waterway.

The shipping organizations noted some major shipping companies were already refusing to transit the gulf, while many others were "understandably considering similar steps."